Second period went surprisingly smoothly for Terezi. Well, she spent the time naming the respective scents of each student in the class, and generally not paying attention. But other than that, there were no significant incidents. Third period, however, was a different story.
Terezi was supposed to have math for third period, but how's a blind girl supposed to find her way in a new school? She ended up walking into the first room that smelled delicious, namely, art class. The mixture of the individual smells of each person, added to the smells of the art supplies made it seem like a candy shop in there. She could also detect an undercurrent of a distinctly familiar smell, something very... red...
"Dave!" Terezi cried, rushing toward the source of the delectable cherry smell in the back corner of the room.
"Oh, hey Tez, that's cool that we both have this class," Dave replied, trying to act cool and calm, but he couldn't stop himself from grinning at the sight of her running to see him so excitedly. Running to see him, not that stupid grey tool.
"Yeah, totally!" Terezi agreed, completely forgetting that she was supposed to be finding math class anyway.
She sat down in the seat next to Dave just as the teacher called the class to attention.
"Good afternoon, students! I know we have new students in the building today, so for those of you who don't know me, or for those who have trouble remembering simple names, I am Miss Emily. Can someone tell me what we have been working on for the past couple of weeks? Tyler?" Miss Emily asked, picking a student at random, who just happened to be the same Tyler who had given the kids and trolls a tour of the school earlier that morning.
"We've been learning about Native American art, specifically totem poles and masks," Tyler answered like the good little student he was.
"Yes, exactly! Now that we've finished up with researching Native American art, we are going to make some art of our own! Every student has the choice of making either a mask or a totem pole. If you have an idea for something different you would like to make, that relates to Native American art or culture, please talk to me and we'll see. Alright, now supplies are over on that table, so get to work! You will have at least the next few days to work on this project."
Miss Emily went back to her desk, and everyone leapt up to grab their supplies. Terezi, however, stayed standing for a moment, confused at the jumble of people that she knew she would never be able to wade through without sight. Dave noticed her predicament.
"Don't worry about it, Terezi, I'll get your stuff for you. Do you want a mask or a pole thing?" Dave offered.
Terezi smiled in relief. "A mask, I guess. Thanks Dave."
Dave left to go get the supplies and Terezi sat back down. She could feel her face heating up from the conversation with Dave, although she had no idea why. It's not like she was flushed for him. Nooo way, she was done with that shit, ever since Gamzee... She shook her head, not even wanting to think about it. She had gone through some tough times in her life, all the trolls had, but now they were on Earth and could start over with a new life.
Dave came back with the supplies, plopping a blank mask, a block of wood made up of animal shapes, extra paper, and some painting necessities onto their table.
"I got us the motherload. Check it out, we have like every shade of paint made, ever."
Terezi put her nose closer to the stuff that smelled like troll blood, but also had a weird undertone to it that smelled decidedly gross and un-fruity. "What the hell is this stuff?" she asked, her nose scrunched up at the horrid smell.
"Dude, it's paint. Do you not have paint on Alternia? Oh right, I forgot you guys just paint with troll blood."
"Hey! That's disgusting, don't even joke about that," Terezi yelled at him, as memories of Gamzee came flooding back, memories of a carnival so dark you could lose yourself in it. Lose every part of you that was sane.
Dave held up his hands, knowing he had gone too far. "Oh jeez, sorry. I forgot about the whole Gamzee thing..." He coughed, suddenly feeling awkward, and like he had just totally fucked things up between him and Terezi.
Terezi took a moment to collect herself. She told herself that Dave hadn't meant anything by his remark, that he didn't know Gamzee as well as she did. As she had.
"Forget about it, Dave. I'm done worrying about Gamzee and his dumb shit. I'm over him. It's okay," she told him, although she mostly said this to placate herself.
They sat in an awkward quiet for a few moments just looking at each other and completely blocking out the sounds of busy students around them. Finally, Dave broke the silence.
"Uh, well, we should probably get to work on this shit..." Dave suggested, gesturing to the supplies waiting for them on their table.
Terezi nodded tersely. "Yeah. So, what the fuck even is a mask, and how do I make one?"
Dave laughed. "Well, a mask is like this thing you put on your face, like a face over your face? How the hell do I explain this... You just paint the mask until it looks like a face, essentially... But I think it's supposed to look like an animal face or whatever, so yeah..." Dave decided to stop talking because he wasn't making any sense anyway.
Terezi nodded like she totally understood, but she really didn't. "An animal... Like make a scalemate?" she asked, suddenly excited for the project. She loved scalemates, and was totally boss at making them. "Uh, but how are you supposed to make a scalemate without fabric."
"No, TZ, you gotta paint an animal, or scalemate or whatever, not make one. But just it's face. On the mask. Then when you put the mask up to your face, you look like a scalemate. Or at least, your face does," Dave tried to explain better.
This time Terezi understood. "Now that I can do!" She grabbed a paintbrush and a tube of paint. She struggled with the lid of the paint for a moment, until finally Dave had to take it and squirt some paint onto the palette for her. She dipped her paint into the little puddle-more like stabbed-and dove right into painting the bestest scalemate mask the world had ever seen!
After watching Terezi paint for a few moments-it was amazing how she had to point not her eyes but her nose at the paper to paint-Dave finally started on his own project. He pondered a minute, wondering what animal he should start with on his totem pole. Then he had a spark of inspiration. He grabbed some red and black paint and started in on his project. 10 minutes later he was finished with his fantabulous portrait of... Terezi!
"Hey, TZ, is this you?" Dave asked her, pointing his totem pole toward her and chuckling.
Terezi looked up from her scalemate mask and turned her nose towards the painting of her. She began to cackle almost immediately. "It smells exactly like me!" she exclaimed. She lunged at it with her tongue so she could see if it tasted like her too, but Dave swiped it out of reach just in time.
"Terezi, the paint is still wet, you can't lick it or you'll get paint in your mouth!" Dave cried, although he was laughing. Leave it to Terezi to act completely spontaneously.
"Damn! Oooh, wait a sec!" Terezi said, completely forgetting about licking her picture, and instead grabbing a blank sheet of paper. She did a quick paint-sketch of Dave, complete with glasses and a cherry-red shirt. "Daaaave, is this you?"
Dave peeked over at her painting. The mess of colour looked like a unicorn had just thrown up on the paper, but of course Dave loved it (probably because he sucks at drawing too).
"Duuude, that is tight! Okay, my turn."
Terezi and Dave spent the next 20 minutes drawing pictures of each other, each drawing get more and more crazy, and their laughter getting louder and louder until finally they attracted the attention of Miss Emily.
"Excuse me, but what exactly is going on here? This is not the project I assigned," she accused.
Dave's and Terezi's laughter slowly died down, although a quick peek at each other caused them to burst into laughter again. Of course, this just made Miss Emily angry.
"I see. Could you tell me your names?" she asked the both of them, pulling out a sheet of paper that had the names of each student on it.
"D-Dave Strider," Dave managed to gasp out between bursts of laughter, and Terezi was the same way.
Miss Emily scrolled down her list, checking of Dave's name, then looking for Terezi. She had gone through the list 5 times before she finally said, "Miss Pyrope, I don't believe you are on my list. Are you sure you have art for third period?"
This caused Terezi to stop. "This is art class? I thought this was math," she said.
…...
Then minutes later, Dave and Terezi were waiting to talk to the principal.
"Do you seriously not know the difference between art and math?" Dave had to ask.
"Uhh, no. The classroom just smelled good, so I assumed it was right..." Terezi admitted. She was not ashamed though.
Dave just laughed. A moment later the door to the detention room opened and Karkat walked out, a grimace on his face. He stopped when he saw Terezi and Dave laughing together.
"What the fuck are you guys doing here?" he demanded.
"It's a long story, dude," Dave told him, a little smugly.
Karkat glared at Dave and was about to retort when the door to the office opened and the principal stepped out.
"Dave Strider and Terezi Pyrope, I will see you now. Mr. Vantas, please go to lunch," the principal instructed.
They complied, although Karkat flipped him off when his back was turned. He stalked out of the office, not even knowing where the hell the stupid cafeteria was. That's what he gets for sulking instead of paying attention during the tour of the school. Oh well, it's gotta be somewhere, right...?